Labor Is a Blessing and a Curse

 

A Labor Day poem about the dignity of labor:

 

Labor is a blessing and a curse,
As one must work to live and live to work.
Better jobs to get up for or worse,
On the whole, with none you'd go berserk.
Remember, then, that dignity requires
Doing, working, laboring -- a role
As giver, as attendant to desires
You recognize within some common soul.

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Maryandra’s Waltz. By Jesse Gallagher. Music free to use at YouTube. Illustration Credit: AI.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labori.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

Labor's a Commodity, like Fish

 

A Labor Day poem about the evil of treating labor like any other commodity:

 

Labor's a commodity, like fish,

As children are fast-frozen and filleted,

Beating down the price. Fortunes are made

On selling to us all so cheap a dish.

Remember how the world is being run,

Determined by the market's iron laws

As slaves and children jingle in its jaws.

Yet is there nothing, nothing to be done?

 

© by Nicholas Gordon

 

Audio and Video Music: Chariots of War. By Aakash Gandhi. Music free to use at YouTube.

 

To see this poem on my site, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labors.html. For more Labor Day poems, go to https://www.poemsforfree.com/labordaypoems.html .

Poem of the Week

September 1, 2011 #649

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Labor Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com/week.html .

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Long may you labor at something you love,
Awakening daily to passion and pleasure,
Blessed to find joy both in work and in leisure,
Obliged to move mountains you most want to move.
Remember that work is defined by the heart,
Delightful or not as the laborer chooses.
All life is a game that one wins or one loses,
Yielding what one would with will and with art.

© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 2, 2010 #597
 
Dear Subscriber:
 
This week’s poem of the week is a Labor Day poem.
 
You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." 
 
You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.
 
Yours,
 
Nick Gordon
 
Let there be a right to earn a living!
All who wish to work should have the chance.
Bad times come and go with circumstance:
Ought we then be hiring or just giving?
Rest assured, there's always much to do:
Demand's determined more by funds than need.
All we give away is wealth we bleed,
Yet work for wages would that wealth renew.
 
© by Nicholas Gordon

Poem of the Week

September 3, 2009 #545

Dear Subscriber:

This week’s poem of the week is a poem for Labor Day.

You can hear me read the poem and listen to the music for it at my site by going to http://www.poemsforfree.com and clicking on "Poem of the Week." You can also cast a vote for it to boost its popularity on Yahoo Buzz.

You can post a comment on the poem or read other comments on it at http://nicholasgordon.blogspot.com.

Yours,

Nick Gordon

Labor is a blessing and a curse,
As one must work to live and live to work.
Better jobs to get up for or worse,
On the whole, with none you'd go berserk.
Remember, then, that dignity requires
Doing, working, laboring – a role
As giver, as attendant to desires
You recognize within some common soul.

© by Nicholas Gordon